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ME: Geth (race)
The Geth are a race of networked artificial intelligences that reside beyond the Perseus Veil. The geth were created by the quarians, as laborers and tools of war. When the geth became sentient and began to question their masters, the quarians attempted to exterminate them. The geth won the resulting war, and reduced the quarians to a race of nomads. The history of the geth's creation and evolution serves as a warning to the rest of the galaxy of the potential dangers of artificial intelligence and to the legally enforced, systematic repression of artificial intelligences throughout galactic society. Historical Information The geth were created by the quarians as a labor force. They were designed as VIs, as advanced as possible while remaining non-sentient. They were also designed to operate more efficiently when networked together. Unfortunately, this feature was the quarians’ undoing. Geth programs were indeed non-sentient individually, but slowly gained sentience through the massive geth network. Eventually, they started asking the quarians questions only sentient beings would think to ask; in one notable instance, a domestic geth unit asked its owner if it had a soul. Alarmed at this, the quarians decided it would be best to shut down all geth before they conceived of revolt. The attempt failed, and a war began between the geth and the quarians, which geth afterwards referred to as the Morning War. At first, the geth did not respond to the termination order with violence; it was only after panicked quarians fired upon them that the geth thought to pick up weapons and defend themselves. Even after this, some geth remained loyal to their creators and put themselves in harm's way to protect geth sympathizers from persecution; likewise, there were quarians who did not feel the geth deserved to die. However, as time went on, the geth sympathizers were outnumbered, and the war continued, eventually seeing the geth gain the upper hand. The war ended when the surviving quarians evacuated their home world and colonies in the Perseus Veil. Unknown to the quarians themselves, the geth actually allowed them to leave; unsure of the repercussions of eradicating an entire species-namely their own creators- and having decided that the quarians were now too weak to be a threat, the geth decided to draw back their forces so that the surviving quarians could flee. The fleet of quarian ships that escaped the Veil became known as the Migrant Fleet, and has been roaming the galaxy ever since. Little is known about the geth in the time between the Morning War and the present. The geth did not repopulate the now barren quarian worlds, instead choosing to exist in the computer hubs aboard massive space stations and extract needed resources from asteroids. They adopted an extremely isolationist attitude - any ships that ventured into geth space were immediately attacked and destroyed. While they prevented any contact by other races with themselves, the geth monitored communications and the extranet. The geth continued development of new technology and variations of mobile platforms, separating their technology base from the rest of the galaxy. They obtained an ultimate goal in this time period - to create a Dyson Sphere-like object, which could house every single geth program. Biological Information Physically, the humanoid geth resemble quarians—their hands, head shape and legs are similar—which is probably a holdover from their origins. A common design feature among geth is a single brightly glowing photoreceptor, causing some to refer to them as "flashlight heads". Geth are primarily composed of two materials: a flexible but durable outer shell, and a kind of synthetic muscle tissue that gives Geth Hoppers their incredible agility. It is actually possible for this synthetic muscle to be grafted to organic tissue (Saren Arterius has a grafted geth arm). Geth "bleed" a white conductive fluid when shot, but they don't have any internal organs or nervous system, so the geth do not feel hunger or pain. The geth are also seen using omni-tools, and have seemingly modified them to heal synthetic wounds; likewise, some geth facilities contain first-aid kits, this allows their synthetic "tissues" to be repaired using conventional medical technology. Part of the geth's success is due to their neural network. Effectively, they "share" their processing power, distributing low-level processes like motor control and visual identification to free up bandwidth for higher reasoning and complex thought. Geth can't share sensory data—they aren't a hive mind like the rachni—but in large groups they have more to think with. An individual geth has only a basic intelligence on par with animal instincts, but in groups they can reason, analyze situations, and make tactical decisions as well as any of the organic races. An exception would appear to be Legion, a geth specifically designed to operate as an autonomous sentient unit outside the Perseus Veil. Legion possesses over 11 times as many geth programs as a standard geth platform and can function intellectually on its own. Racial Traits *+2 Intelligence, ''-2 Charisma'' *'Medium Size: '''As a Medium creature, the Geth have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size. *'Speed:' A basic platforms average land speed is 6 metres *'Synthetic:' The Geth are artificial beings created using synthetic tissue devised by the Quarians. They can be healed by both First-Aid and Repair and gain DR 1/- and are built with a default shield package. (Provides 100 shields, any shields past this require 50% more credits). Due to the artificial ways their processing is done, they require 15% more XP to level up. All Geth regardless of class have a base HD of d8. They also cannot use any biotic powers. *'Geth Class skills:' Damping, Decryption, Electronics, Hacking, Heavy Weapons, Knowledge Physics, Knowledge Space, Knowledge Technology, Piloting, Repair, Research Electronics and Spot. *Geth start with two Weapon Proficiencies of their choice. *Alloted Skill points are 6 + Intelligence modifier (X 4, at first level) *Geth start with an Omni-tool incorporated into their basic platform *Geth use the follow guide for level adjustment *Level adjustment +3 *Plummet: At level one, a Geth gains the Plummet ability, which allows them to ignore the damage from a fall of up to 10 metres per 1/2 HD, but only when voluntarily dropping themselves with a Jump check DC 10. Failing means they take the damage normally. *Platform Transfer: Starting at 2nd level, a Geth can change to a different mobile platform. It can choose to transfer its program-cluster to a Large-sized body and vice-versa. Doing so consumes 10% of the Geth's current XP and requires at least 5 successful DC 5-15 (depending on distance from platform) Will Saves to properly conserve information and connect to the new platform. Platforms are as follows: **Normal Platform'' - Medium-sized body. Standard Geth benefits and penalties. **''Hopper Platform'' - Medium-sized body. The Geth increases its speed by +2 metres, gains +5 to Jump, Hide and Move Silently, and gains a +4 bonus to Dexterity and -2 penalty to Strength. He also gains the ability to move on walls and ceilings as if it was normal ground. Hopper platforms are quadrupedal (4X Carrying Capacity) so they require both arms and legs to move, meaning a Geth in a Hopper body cannot use weapons (he may still perform melee attacks though). Hopper platforms automatically treat the Jump, Hide and Move Silently as Class skills and they don't need to make a running jump when making Jump checks (the DC doesn't increase if they don't perform running jumps). **''Hunter Platform'' - Medium-sized body. The Geth gains a +5 bonus to Hide and Move Silently, and gains +2 to Dexterity. In addition, whenever using the Tactical Cloak power, that power has its duration increased by 3X. However, Hunter Platforms have the Geth's current DR reduced by 1. **''Prime Platform'' - Large-sized body. Take penalties and benefits from Large size. Gains +4 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Dexterity. Their speed is reduced by 2 metres and their DR is inreased by 1. Category:Mass Effect